Superfast Jellyfish
by ZAFO
Summary: Sokka and Momo take an accidental detour in the Si Wong desert. Set during "The Desert" episode.
1. one fine day

** Superfast Jellyfish**

by** ZAFO**

**A/N:** Here the Gaang find Aang _before_ Sokka and Momo find the cactus. :)

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><p>–<p>

**1.**

The tart liquid sliding down his throat immediately gave way to a warm, electric sensation running throughout his entire body. With heat in his cheeks and newfound psychedelic-colored vision, Sokka felt his head spin (literally).

Whoa.

"DRINK CACTUS JUICE!" He announced. "IT'LL QUENCH YA!" Here, a body roll seemed appropriate. "NOOOOOOTHING'S QUENCHIER! IT'S THE _QUENCHIEST!"_

"Sokka, stop it!" cried Katara, wrestling the wet succulent out of his hands.

He wavered, then fell over, balanced disrupted. Katara merely gave a frustrated groan and threw his cactus cup over her shoulder, yelling at him again for being stupid, or something, even though he wasn't.

No, he thought, his thoughts muffled. His cactus juice. He needed some quenching.

In the air, Momo made a series of increasingly erratic loops before crashing face-first down onto the sand, limbs splayed out awkwardly.

"My poor buddy." He cooed, crawling over to scoop the little lemur into his arms.

Momo was wide-eyed–more so than usual–and pawing at his robe listlessly. He chirped, and Sokka thought he heard the feeble urgency in his voice.

More cactus juice. Momo must have wanted more cactus juice.

He wanted more cactus juice too.

"More." He mumbled, reaching for the cup Katara had discarded.

"No." seethed Katara. _"No more cactus juice."_

She kicked his hand away. Behind her, Toph shuffled.

"Can I have some of that?"

"_No!"_ snapped Katara.

Aang simply stood still beside her, angry and silent. Tensions in the group were rising, the heat and desolation were finally getting to them, and had the cactus juice not made him so…_happy,_ Sokka was sure he'd be grumpy as well. Maybe.

The watertribe boy looked down at the furry, twitching mass of white and brown in his arms.

_More cactus juice, Sokka._ said Momo.

He blinked, then gasped loudly, in shock.

"Since when could you TALK, Momo?!"

_Since forever. _Momo answered smugly. Then his green, marble eyes turned watery and pleading. _We need more juice, Sokka._

"GUYS!" he screamed. "MOMO IS _TALKING!"_

To his chagrin, no one was listening. Katara and Toph were now having a full-blown shouting match, with Aang uncharacteristically snapping at them both at random intervals.

_Sokka…hurry... _whimpered Momo.

That's it, Sokka decided. He needed some juice for him and his buddy, sister be damned. He hardened his eyes into what he hoped was a steely expression, then stood up–still cradling Momo–and waltzed boldly over to the cactus plant he had chopped the first cup from.

…or was that Toph?

It was an easy mistake to make; they were both green.

"Toph," he slurred "Outta the way!"

But when he moved to (gently) push her aside, his hand phased though nothing but hot air and sand particles. Huh.

From a distance, he thought he could hear the Gaang still arguing.

A distance?

He shook his head. Close or far, it didn't matter. He needed to go on and find some damned cactus juice. For Momo and him.

Mostly him.

–

**2.**

"I don't wanna talk to you anymore!" snarled Toph. "Get outta my face, Sugarqueen!"

"_Fine!"_ yelled Katara. "Go pick dirt out of your feet or whatever!"

"There IS no dirt in the desert, Madame Fussy-britches, or else I'd kick your butt by now!"

"Don't call me that!"

"Stop fighting!" shouted Aang, his ears red from anger. "You guys are supposed to be helping me find Appa, and instead you're fighting about–_about cactus juice!_ And Sokka–"

Aang abruptly stopped his short tirade, glancing quickly about himself.

"–where's Sokka?" he finished uneasily. "And Momo?"

Toph and Katara stilled.

"Sokka…?" Katara asked hesitantly.

"_SOKKA!"_ Toph yelled into the distance.

No one answered.

–

**3.**

"That's a…that's a village!" exclaimed Sokka. Momo gave a faint Momo-gurgle, apparently forgetting his English. Sokka could feel himself bouncing. "…MAYBE IT'S FRIENDLY!"

He had just spent the past few minutes_–hours?–_wandering from the desert through a fortified valley behind some ugly cliffs of rock, so the looming sight of solid, stucco buildings was welcome.

He ran clumsily, clutching onto the lemur as wind whizzed past his ears.

Then he tripped.

Momo tumbled out of his arms and onto the sand, gurgling again, and didn't move. Sokka looked behind himself and saw his leg tangled in some thin wire tied around a pointy knife-thingy. Whoops. Guess that wasn't wind after all, he thought vaguely.

Whoever on the other end of the wire gave a painful warning tug, and the watertribe boy found himself shrieking shrilly.

"OW! STOP THAT!"

"You are on Sunagakure land. State your name and business." commanded a strong, gravelly voice.

An adult.

Sokka looked up at the half-veiled jōnin, grimacing wobbly.

"Guhh…"

Then he threw up.

Baki grimaced too.

–

**4.**

The boy was high out of his mind, and obviously too skinny and stupid to be a shinobi. With his dark, nut-brown complexion, Baki wondered briefly if he was from Kumogakure.

'_No, too far.'_ Thought Baki.

Even if he had help travelling the long distance, the boy was dressed far too uniquely to be from Kumo: both his attire and accent instead suggested some sort of backwater peasant from who-knows-where. Maybe it was one of the civilian trading villages near the coast.

In any case, the pony-tailed boy didn't really seem to pose any threat, and just in case he was the son of someone even slightly important, Baki didn't want to cause any potential diplomatic incident. Into Sunagakure he would go. After all, the only weapon he had on him was a dull, battered boomerang, and his only other possessions included the clothes on his back and a strange, winged monkey whose head was now lolling about on his left shoulder.

On his right shoulder, the boy was shouting gleefully–obnoxiously–as Baki made his way through the village, the two hoisted securely on his back.

"THANKS MISTER. I WAS REEEEAAAAL LOST, YOU KNOW."

Civilian and shinobi alike were snickering at them as they made their way down the street.

"THIS IS A COOL CITY. WOW. I'VE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE IT! I'M FROM–I'M FROM THE WATER TRIBE, YOU KNOW."

Water tribe. Huh. Baki had never heard of it, but it seemed as if his initial 'backwater peasant' assessment was correct. He mentally filed the information away for later.

"THESE STRIPES ON YOUR FACE ARE COOL. ARE THEY PAINT? MY GIRLFRIEND PAINTS HER FACE TOO, I MEAN MY SECOND GIRLFRIEND. MY FIRST GIRLFRIEND TURNED INTO THE _MOON,_ AHA!"

Okay, now the boy's voice was really starting to grate on his ears. The sooner he dumped the boy into Gaara's office, the better. Baki had previously considered the hospital, but Suna was notoriously stingy with its scarce resources, and the nurses would have given him an earful for dropping off a random foreigner when Suna residents took top priority.

"…she watches over us, I think, but she can't see everything." said the boy, his voice now reduced (thankfully) to a depressed drawl. "We lost Appa, and Aang's sad. Momo too."

The monkey gave a bizarre chirp at the mention of its name.

"Have you seen Appa?"

Baki continued to ignore him.

Close. Their destination was close.

Not getting the hint, the boy decided to raise his voice again.

"HAVE YOU SEEN APPA?"

"…Tell Gaara-sama I require his audience." Baki said stiffly as they finally arrived, ignoring the amused guffaws of the Kazakage building's sentries. "I've found an unknown person outside the village perimeter and wish to consult him on further action."

The jōnin looked pointedly over his right shoulder, where the boy began to wave his arms about wildly.

"HE'S A _FLYING BISON!"_

–

**5.**

Gaara quirked an invisible eyebrow as his former sensei stepped into his office and unceremoniously dumped a tan boy and a winged monkey onto the floor.

"Kazakage-sama." Baki greeted politely.

"Baki-san." Gaara nodded. "You…requested my audience?"

"Indeed." said Baki. "What should we do with these two?"

The jinchūriki glanced down at the boy-in-blue struggling awkwardly to pick himself up, then at the gently chattering monkey who was simultaneously licking his carpet.

"I have deemed them to be no threat." offered Baki.

"…Yes." he agreed. The cogs in his brain were working languidly. What should they do, indeed? It seemed as though the two were high out of their minds.

"Hey." greeted the boy, swaying deliriously. "Got any…got any cactus juice?"

"No."

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><p>[to be continued…]<p> 


	2. i met a man

**Superfast Jellyfish**

by ZAFO

**A/N:** i've decided that this will be a relatively short story... maybe just a few more installments. but let's all have fun along the way! :)

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><p>—<p>

**6.**

"Who lit your head on fire?" asked the boy.

"I hope you are not insulting my hair color." said Gaara.

The boy quirked his head to the side, his pupils dilated and his gaze vacant. Gaara thought he even saw a bit of drool pooling at the corner of his mouth.

"I've never seen _fire_ hair before." There was a hint of confused awe in his voice. "My first girlfriend had white hair though. She was a princess, but now she's the _moon_."

Gaara didn't reply. He didn't know what kind of cactus the boy had sampled, but it definitely seemed like strong stuff. Baki was right.

Currently, his new prisoner was tied to a chair beside his desk, squirming like a swaddled newborn. In reality, he was being restrained more so for the sake of his own safety than Gaara's; a few minutes ago the boy had become convinced that there were hostile 'firebenders' in the office, swinging some wildly sloppy punches in air before suddenly tripping over his own two feet. The jinchūriki's quick sand intervention was the only thing that had prevented him from nearly splitting his chin open.

Gaara didn't mind leaving the winged monkey unrestrained though. There had been a slight pest problem in the building lately, and his office was not left untouched. The monkey seemed equally content sitting in the corner nibbling on sandhoppers.

The redhead wondered where the boy had come from to own such an exotic pet.

"What is your name?" he started.

The boy brightened instantly, and for a moment Gaara was reminded fondly of one Naruto Uzumaki.

"It's Sokka!" he answered happily. "What's yours?"

Sokka—that was an odd one. Definitely foreign.

"Gaara of the Desert."

"Of the desert…?" he repeated. "OH, I get it! 'Cos you live in the desert!"

"Partially."

"Then I'm Sokka of the Igloo." he quipped proudly.

Gaara blinked.

He seemed to run into the odd ones, it seemed. Granted, he was thinking once again of Kyuubi's container, but Naruto was equally oblivious.

"What is your origin?"

"Watertribe!"

"Where is that?"

"To the south."

"_Where?"_ Gaara pressed.

Sokka looked at him oddly, even in his drugged haze perplexed at how the redhead didn't know.

"You know," he said. "To the south. The South Pole."

Gaara had no idea what he was talking about.

"You are from the Land of Waves?" he asked doubtfully.

"HAHA, you're funny! There_ is_ no land on waves." Sokka chortled.

The jinchūrki's lips tugged into to small frown. Baki had stated that the boy was a 'backwater peasant,' but at the time, Gaara had thought he was just being harsh.

…maybe it was just the 'cactus juice' talking. Gaara decided he would give him the benefit of the doubt, and ask him to clarify again later when his head was clear.

"OH!" Sokka exclaimed again, seemingly remembering something important. "Earlier…you…you caught me from falling—with sand! You're a _sandbender!"_

"Sandbender?"

"You can _bend sand!"_

"By which you mean I can manipulate it, yes." Gaara answered patiently.

"Are you the boss?"

"I am kazekage."

Sokka giggled almost feverishly. Gaara wondered if he really should get a nurse into his office.

"_Kazekaaaaaage._ HA! That's a funny nickname for a boss… so… so do you know where Appa is?"

"Appa?"

"Our flying bison."

"Flying bison." Gaara repeated flatly.

"YEAH!" Sokka nodded excitedly. "My friend said the sandbenders took him!"

"I did no such thing." said Gaara. Then, "How much of this 'cactus juice' did you drink?"

"Enough to feel good," Sokka beamed.

The monkey gave a purr of agreement from his corner.

Well, this was certainly more entertaining than paperwork.

—

**7. **

Temari came into his office to nag at him about spending more family time with little Shikadai, now that they were both back in Suna.

Sokka got smacked upside the head when he told her to _"take it easy, little lady."_

_—_

**8.**

Sokka blinked blearily, then woke with a start when he took in the sight of blank, unblinking jade eyes.

"WAAAHH!" he screamed "WHO ARE YOU?!"

"Gaara of the Desert. You do not remember?"

"No!" he shrieked.

Frankly, the tattooed man scared him. It was a combination of the dark, menacing rings around his eyes, the unusual blood-red hair, and the subtle waves of power that seemed to emanate off his very being. Spirits, he really hoped the man wasn't Fire Nation…

"Where am I?!"

"You are in my office. You fell asleep earlier; you have been here all day."

Sokka noted then with panic that he was tied to a chair. His voice took on a new fever-pitch.

"If–if you're gonna try to torture me to get to Aang then _tough luck!_ I'll never talk!"

Gaara simply blinked in response. Sokka glared defiantly, though a quivering lower lip betrayed his true feelings.

Then, the water tribe boy heard a familiar soft chattering, and additional panic hit.

"WHERE'S MOMO?" he screeched. "WHAT DID YOU DO WITH HIM?"

He flailed his legs, straining against the ropes as the jinchuuriki looked on, unimpressed. Sokka stopped, however, when a small boy with elfin features and black hair reminiscent of a pineapple stepped out from behind Gaara's figure. The boy was holding a complacent Momo in his arms like a stuffed animal, and Momo himself was happily working his way through a fresh peach in his paws.

"Uncle Gaara," said the boy. "He's annoying. What are you gonna do with him?"

"That is good question, Shikadai."

He gulped.

—

**9. **

Temari glared at her brother, then at her son, then at the winged monkey perched on her son's shoulder, then at the (rude) foreigner fidgeting nervously behind them both.

"Gaara, what is this?"

"Extra dinner guests." he replied. "If you will have them."

Temari blinked slowly, then crossed her arms in a huff before motioning her head for them all to come in.

"Only if the human one will help set the table." she said.

'_Well,'_ thought Sokka, mildly disconcerted. _ 'This sure beats an interrogation.'_

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><p><strong>AN:** Alert! I also have another, slightly more serious NarutoxATL:A crossover out titled _'X,'_ please check it out if you're interested! ^^


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